Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- A 31-year-old woman was charged with
murder in the death of a man who was pushed in front of a New
York City subway train, telling authorities it was an act of
revenge for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Erika Menendez, 31, was charged with second-degree murder
as a hate-crime for allegedly pushing Sunando Sen, 46, into a
No. 7 train in the Queens borough of New York on the night of
Dec. 27, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said yesterday
in a statement.

Menendez, who lives in the Bronx, admitted pushing Sen and
said she was prompted by the terrorist attacks in 2001,
according to Brown. She said “in sum and substance ’I pushed a
Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims
ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been
beating them up,’” according to the district attorney.

“The defendant is accused of committing what is every
subway commuter’s worst nightmare -– being suddenly and
senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train,” Brown
said.

The fatality was the second such incident in New York City
this month. On Dec. 3, a man was killed when he was pushed onto
the tracks in front of an oncoming train in Manhattan.

Menendez was seen talking to herself while seated on a
bench at the 40th Street-Lowery Street station and was also
observed pacing on the platform and muttering to herself. Sen
was on the subway platform as the train approached, and Menendez
allegedly pushed him from behind into the path of the oncoming
train, according to the district attorney.

Victim Unaware

Witnesses said Sen didn’t appear to notice his attacker,
according to police. He was struck by the first of the 11-car
train, and his body was pinned under the front of the second car
as the train came to a stop.

Sen was a native of India who lived in Queens and had a
printing business in New York City. He had no family in New
York, according to police.

The suspect fled down two separate staircases to the
street. Detectives had a surveillance video of the suspect
running from the scene, police said.

The 40th Street-Lowery Street station is just six stops
east of midtown Manhattan. Its narrow eastbound platform,
elevated two stories above the street, is packed at rush-hour
with exiting commuters forced to slowly funnel down stairwells
past riders waiting to board trains.

Manhattan Killing

In the Manhattan incident, at the Times Square station,
Naeem Davis, 30, was charged with second-degree murder in the
death of 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han, according to the Associated
Press. Davis said he was coaxed into shoving Han onto the tracks
by voices in his head he couldn’t control, the AP said, citing
the New York Post.

“It’s sometimes in the back of peoples’ minds because of
the incident preceding this one, but there’s no indication that
it is related in any way or inspired it,” Paul Browne, a police
department spokesman, said of the death.

The NYPD announced earlier last week that there were 414
murders in New York City through Dec. 23, a 19 percent decrease
from last year and fewer than the previous low of 471 reached in
2009. Barring a sudden spike in violence in the last week of the
year, 2012 will mark the lowest murder total since comparable
records began in 1963, Browne said. There were 2,262 murders in
1990, according to data posted on the NYPD’s website.

Bloomberg Statement

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Dec. 28 in a
statement that 2012 also saw the fewest number of shootings on
record, with 1,353 compared with a previous low of 1,420 in
2009. Shootings have decreased by 8.5 percent so far this year
compared to 2011 and 14.5 percent since 2001, Bloomberg said.
The mayor is majority owner of Bloomberg LP, parent of Bloomberg
News.

The No. 7 train extends from Times Square in Manhattan into
Queens, terminating in the neighborhood of Flushing, east of
LaGuardia airport. Police suspended service at the 40th Street
station through the night while the investigation proceeded,
reopening it to the public before the morning rush-hour.

Adam Lisberg, a spokesman for the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, said there isn’t much the agency can
do beyond warning people to stay away from the tracks on
platforms. He said barriers between platforms and trains used in
some transit systems, such as those used on platforms serving
the AirTrain between the Jamaica area of Queens and John F.
Kennedy International Airport, aren’t suitable for the subway.

The subway system uses several different trains with doors
in different positions so there’s no uniform way to place the
gates, and the cost would be prohibitive, he said.

“If we lived in a world of completely available unlimited
dollars there may be a way to” prevent such incidents, said
Joseph Lhota, the MTA chairman. “I don’t think this is
something that can be solved by spending more money in the
subway system.”

Lhota said that he encourages “all New Yorkers to stand
back from the edge of the platform.”